All Time Stats Keep Me Humble
Wouldn’t I love to think that the most profound posts I write would garner the most attention and the most comments? But the truth is so humbling; the posts I write for fun, or in a hurry have long legs, or so WordPress tells me, and gather up statistics year after year.
I never know, when I write an article, what its future will be. It’s not unlike giving birth – you can input, but you have no control over who that child will be or where he/she will go.
God has the most wonderful sense of humor.
Dinner at Hofbrau Haus in Panama City Beach, FL
We lived so many years in Germany, and one of the phrases that would drive me crazy is people exclaiming about schnitzles that “were so BIG they were hanging off the plate!” (said with big googly eyes). Big and schnitzle do not necessarily go well together. Schnitzle can be tough, it can have too much fat, it can be gristly. Living there for so long, I’ve had some really bad schnitzles, big and small. During our later years in Germany, we avoided schnitzle altogether; there were so many other alternatives, more refined dishes – pumpkin raviolis, white asparagus soups, St. Martin’s goose, venison ragout, duck breasts . . . (drooling in a very un-refined way . . . )
But lately, I had tiny hankering for a plain old schnitzle, and here we were in Panama City Beach, where there is a HofBrau House.
When we lived in Heidelberg, there was a HofBrau House nearby. Growing up in Germany, it seemed to me HofBrau House was everywhere, sort of like a German version of McDonalds. Now, you don’t see them so often as you used to, except for the original one in Munich.
AdventureMan is a great sport; he likes schnitzle less than I do, but off we go to HofBrau House, and actually, we have a great time.
I order a pretzel, it is huge and it is very hot, and served with a mustard dipping sauce. (This is nothing like we ever had in Germany; pretzels were mostly street-food.) It was salty and the sauce was delicious. I loved it.
The pretzel went great with the beer – very good beer – and the accordion music. The atmosphere in the HofBrau house is festive. The beer is VERY good.
When my schnitzel came, it covered the plate. I was aghast, but . . . it was crisply fried, not any fat, not any gristle and lots and lots of lemon wedges to squeeze onto it. We cut it in half and took half home for a late Thanksgiving snack the next night. We cut the remainder in half and enjoyed every bite. It will be a long long time before I feel a need for a schnitzel again, but this one did the HofBrau Haus proud.
Service was the best. All the wait staff looked really happy to be there, even those who had to wear the serving wench costumes. It is located in Pier Park, a great place to go walking after a schnitzel dinner, great shopping and a kid’s park with rides and a huge slide.
Thanksgiving at the Sunset Inn
Back in Panama City for our annual gathering with our sweet daughter-in-law’s family, we check in at the Sunset Inn on a glorious day in late November. The view that greets us thrills our hearts:
There aren’t too many people staying at the beach, go figure, it’s Thanksgiving and families are gathering, but this is a GREAT time to be here. We have a full kitchen, so I can still roast my garlic-broccoli, make my Mom’s Cranberry Salad and make the topping for the Soused Apple Cake all while having the door wide open and listening to the waves roaring to the shore. This is one of my happiest places on earth.
These small surf boards give a lot of pleasure on smaller waves:
I thought I was back in Kuwait, overlooking the family park in Fintas:
I can see things slipping a little at the Sunset Inn, carpets not being replaced, linens getting thinner from so many washings, small repairs not being made – and I know our days there are numbered. Sigh. What they can’t replace in the personal character of the management – I can run down and beg a couple pieces of tinfoil to cover my broccoli; it is their motel, they manage it personally. There are countless soulless condos and motel rooms in Panama City Beach, but only one Sunset Inn.
Qatari Ambassador to US Speaks to Full House in Pensacola
Yesterday, the Qatari Ambassador to the United States, Mohammed Jaham Al Kawari, spoke to a packed house at the New World Landing as the Tiger Bay Club gathered to hear how little Qatar is exerting big influence in the world peace-making arena.
The ambassador has an impressive biography, and in appearance very polished, very French. He isn’t afraid to tackle the tough questions, and presents Qatar’s position in a way that people can hear and understand.
Masala: Pantone Color of the Year 2015
Oh arrgh. To me, this is a great color for a purse, or any accent piece, but for clothing, it’s so brown, so deep, so heavy . . .
Abu Dhabi Police Capture Suspect in Killing of American Teacher
. . . And they put together a movie to show how it was done. Wow. If our police could do this, cases would clear courts a lot faster. Here is the story:
From AOL News:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates’ interior minister says police have arrested a suspect in the killing of an American schoolteacher in the capital, Abu Dhabi.
State news agency WAM says Interior Minister Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on Thursday that the suspect also planted a makeshift bomb outside the house of an American doctor. He says the device was successfully dismantled.
Police say the teacher was stabbed to death by an attacker wearing the full black veil commonly worn by women throughout the Gulf Arab region.
When I watched it YouTube, it showed sponsorship by No Nonsense, LOL, which I thought ironically appropriate.
The Season of Isaiah
Advent started yesterday, and our readings in The Lectionary begin with Isaiah, that prophet of sorrow for our sinfulness, and hope for a future redeemer:
Isaiah 1:10-20
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,*
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
13 bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.
18 Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Thanksgiving: The Opposite of Zero Sum Game
We are thankful for so much, for God’s great abundance in our lives, and when I read today’s message on Forward Day by Day, I felt even more thankful. Zero sum game is the way most of us see life. You win, I lose; I win, you lose. With an attitude of Thanksgiving, we all win.
THURSDAY, November 27 Thanksgiving Day
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.
Wherever this day finds you, I suspect you are thinking about thankfulness. Maybe your cup is overflowing with blessings, and you can’t stop thanking God for your many blessings. Maybe you’ve been through a harrowing season, and you are just thankful for being alive. Or maybe life has not lived up to your expectations, and you are struggling to find something for which to be thankful. It seems to me that thankfulness is one of those things that doesn’t run out. It’s the opposite of a zero-sum game, where one person wins and the other loses.
God invites us into an ever-present abundance, where we don’t have to worry about running out. The same is true for our thankfulness of those blessings. The more thankfulness we share, the more we receive—and the more others have as well. The truth of God’s good world is that there is enough. There’s enough for us to have what we need, and there’s enough for us to share.
Pray for the Diocese of Kericho (Kenya)
Ps 65; Deuteronomy 8:7-18; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Luke 17:11-19
Called by Name
I’ve always loved this story. Imagine, being a hated tax collector, and probably taking your cut. Imagine, a famous person coming to town, and being short, you climb a tree so you can see him pass by. And imagine that as he is passing, he notices you, he really sees you, he calls you by name and asks to stay at your place (how did he even know my name, I might wonder)?
The Lord Jesus turns everything upside down. He says we do wrong, and if we follow him (which I understand means that we do as he says and does) that the price for our sins is paid by him. He says the rules on earth are not the rules in the heavenly kingdom, and he calls Zacchaeus, as he calls you and me.
Luke 19:1-10
19He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycomore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ 9Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’
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